- August 12, 1877 - popular date given for Thomas Edison's completion of the model for the first phonograph
- Edison was trying to improve the telegraph transmitter
- Noticed that the movement of the paper tape through the machine produced a noise resembling spoken words when played at a high speed
- Experimenting with a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, Edison spoke into the machine
- Do you know the first words ever recorded?
- To Edison's surprise, the cylinder recorded his message... Do you know what it was?
- "Mary had a little lamb."
- People had a hard time believing his discovery at first
- But soon Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (after the name of the city in New Jersey where he did his work)
- Sound recording was rapidly becoming an American industry